A communication network typically includes network components that detect defects within the network. The network components typically detect defects using service entities including Maintenance End Groups (MEG), Service Aware Maintenance End Points (SA-MEP), Service Transparent Maintenance End Points (ST-MEP), and Remote MEP, Maintenance Intermediate Points (MIP). Each network component may include hundreds or even thousands of service entities.
The networking standards 802.1ag and Y.1731 list numerous defect types and state that these defects should be reported to a network management system. Traditionally all defects are reported as individual defect alarms to the network management system. If each defect is reported as an individual defect alarm, it is possible that thousands of defect alarms are generated either simultaneously or within a very short amount time.
When masking of the individual defect alarms is not possible, an alarm storm in the network may occur. Conventional network management systems typically cannot handle processing the number of individual defect alarms that may be generated during an alarm storm. Even if the network management system can process each individual defect alarm, handling such a large number of defect alarms may consume many resources in the network.